Description

1998 Pinnacle Certified was supposed to be a 150-card release, intended for release in early August, 1998. The product was never released due to Pinnacle Brands' bankruptcy in July, 1998. However, in October of 2017, a full base set along with a complete set of Certified Red, Mirror Red, Mirror Blue, and Mirror Gold parallels emerged on the secondary market, which some have dubbed the "Pinnacle Baseball Find" (PBF). While many players had base or parallel versions surface since 1998, the emergence of these sets marked the first time copies of certain players were confirmed:

According to the sell-sheets issued by Pinnacle Brands, parts of the Totally Certified product introduced the previous year were to have been absorbed into 1998 Pinnacle Certified as parallels. The final batch of Epix inserts were also to have been included in this set.

Over the years since Pinnacle's bankruptcy, a number of cards from this set, especially from the Mirror Red and Totally Certified Platinum Gold parallel sets made their way into the secondary market. Just like with most 1998 Select, Donruss Signature, and high-numbered Donruss Crusade cards, they were likely "backdoored."

Distribution

Sell-sheets stated that a pack of six cards would have retailed for $4.99.

Checklist

The following was the provisional checklist provided by Pinnacle Brands before their bankruptcy. This full checklist (1-150) has since been fully confirmed and at least one copy of every card in the base set exists. Cards 100-135 were part of the "Certified Future" subset and cards 136-150 were part of the “Certified Legends” subset.

1 Vladimir Guerrero

2 Andruw Jones

3 Paul Molitor

4 Jose Cruz

5 Edgar Martinez

6 Andy Pettitte

7 Darin Erstad

8 Barry Larkin

9 Derek Jeter

10 Rusty Greer

11 Brady Anderson

12 Tony Clark

13 Manny Ramirez

14 Jim Thome

15 Matt Williams

16 Ivan Rodriguez

17 Scott Rolen

18 Gary Sheffield

19 Dave Justice

20 Roberto Alomar

21 Ken Caminiti

22 Sammy Sosa

23 Albert Belle

24 Chuck Knoblauch

25 Mo Vaughn

26 Raul Mondesi

27 Tim Salmon

28 Bernie Williams

29 Tony Gwynn

30 Pedro Martinez

31 Roger Clemens

32 Craig Biggio

33 Randy Johnson

34 Tino Martinez

35 Chipper Jones

36 Kenny Lofton

37 Greg Maddux

38 Hideo Nomo

39 Andres Galarraga

40 Nomar Garciaparra

41 Juan Gonzalez

42 Mark McGwire

43 Mike Piazza

44 Jeff Bagwell

45 Barry Bonds

46 Larry Walker

47 Alex Rodriguez

48 Frank Thomas

49 Cal Ripken, Jr.

50 Ken Griffey, Jr.

51 Todd Walker

52 Jose Guillen

53 Vinny Castilla

54 Shannon Stewart

55 Jim Edmonds

56 Bob Higginson

57 Jay Buhner

58 Mike Mussina

59 Todd Greene

60 Chan Ho Park

61 Livan Hernandez

62 Sandy Alomar, Jr.

63 Fred McGriff

64 Travis Fryman

65 Jaret Wright

66 Bobby Bonilla

67 Moises Alou

68 Rafael Palmeiro

69 Charles Johnson

70 Ray Lankford

71 Kevin Brown

72 Neifi Perez

73 Rondell White

74 Bartolo Colon

75 Bob Abreu

76 Eric Young

77 Jason Giambi

78 Edgardo Alfonzo

79 Dante Bichette

80 Eric Karros

81 Matt Morris

82 Tom Glavine

83 Todd Hundley

84 Jason Dickson

85 Ryan Klesko

86 Mark Grace

87 Brett Tomko

88 Kevin Orie

89 Robin Ventura

90 Jose Canseco

91 Brian Jordan

92 Jason Kendall

93 Mike Cameron

94 Curt Schilling

95 Carlos Delgado

96 Garret Anderson

97 John Smoltz

98 Wade Boggs

99 Javy Lopez

100 Juan Encarnacion

101 Travis Lee

102 Todd Helton

103 Mark Kotsay

104 Fernando Tatis

105 David Ortiz

106 Paul Konerko

107 Miguel Tejada

108 Derrek Lee

109 Jacob Cruz

110 Randall Simon

111 Kerry Wood

112 Ricky Ledee

113 Eli Marrero

114 Brad Fullmer

115 Bobby Estalella

116 Carl Pavano

117 Mike Lowell

118 Brian Rose

119 Ben Grieve

120 Wes Helms

121 Enrique Wilson

122 Donnie Sadler

123 Frank Catalanotto

124 Richie Sexson

125 Russell Branyan

126 Kevin Millwood

127 Ron Wright

128 Derrick Gibson

129 Magglio Ordonez

130 Michael Coleman

131 Danny Clyburn

132 Sean Casey

133 Dave Dellucci

134 Jeff Abbott

135 Lou Collier

136 Scott Rolen

137 Nomar Garciaparra

138 Juan Gonzalez

139 Derek Jeter

140 Roger Clemens

141 Chipper Jones

142 Hideo Nomo

143 Mark McGwire

144 Alex Rodriguez

145 Jeff Bagwell

146 Greg Maddux

147 Frank Thomas

148 Ken Griffey, Jr.

149 Mike Piazza

150 Cal Ripken, Jr.

Parallels

Certified Red, Mirror Red/Blue/Gold

All 150 base cards have the following parallels that have been confirmed to exist (i.e., at least one copy has surfaced on the secondary market):

Certified Red

Mirror Red

Mirror Blue

Mirror Gold

Certified Red, Mirror Red, Mirror Blue, and Mirror Gold parallels are not serial-numbered. It is not known how many of each Certified Red, Mirror Red, Blue, or Gold sets were printed. However, for each of these parallels, cards 101-150 were to have half of the production run as cards 1-100.

Totally Certified

According to the original sell sheet, only cards 1-10 of the Totally Certified Platinum Red, Blue, and Gold parallels were available in 1998 Pinnacle Certified (as inserts). This could be why the only Platinum Gold parallels that have emerged on the secondary market were cards 1-10 and why the select few of Platinum Blue and Red parallels that have surfaced were also only of the first ten players in the set.

Original sell sheet also stated, "Totally Certified will not ship until February" which suggests that 1998 Totally Certified was planned to be released as a separate set (as in 1997) or that cards 11-150 had Platinum Red, Blue, and Gold parallels to be released separately.

However, due to Pinnacle's bankruptcy in July/August 1998, it is possible that the Totally Certified Parallels of cards 11-150 were never produced or were produced but have yet to surface on the secondary market.

Totally Certified Platinum Red

The only Totally Certified Platinum Red parallel that has surfaced is of Vladimir Guerrero and is sheet cut/factory cut.

1 Vladimir Guerrero

Totally Certified Platinum Blue

Totally Certified Platinum Blue parallels exist but only a few players have surfaced. A miscut sheet portion of Platinum Blues surfaced that featured Vladimir Guerrero, Andruw Jones, and Paul Molitor. However, a sheet cut/factory cut Platinum Blue parallel of Vladmir Guerrero and Andruw Jones (but not Paul Molitor) has surfaced. The following players have a Platinum Blue parallel that has emerged on the secondary market:

1 Vladimir Guerrero

2 Andruw Jones

3 Paul Molitor

Totally Certified Platinum Gold

Totally Certified Platinum Gold parallels have surfaced, but only for the first ten cards in the set.

These are serially numbered to 30, although a Darin Erstad with "xxxx - 0300" printed on the back has also surfaced. While it is unknown if all 30 sets were produced, one collector [1] has documented the existence of 14 Darin Erstad Platinum Golds, with serial numbers ranging from 2/30 to 30/30. The following players are confirmed to have a Platinum Gold parallel:

1 Vladimir Guerrero

2 Andruw Jones

3 Paul Molitor

4 Jose Cruz

5 Edgar Martinez

6 Andy Pettitte

7 Darin Erstad

8 Barry Larkin

9 Derek Jeter

10 Rusty Greer

Mirror Black

Each card in the base set (1-150) was supposed to have a Mirror Black parallel that was to be numbered 1 of 1. However, no Mirror Blacks have surfaced and thus it is unknown if they were even printed, let alone distributed.

Inserts

Certified Destiny & Certified Gold Destiny

This 10-card set was printed on mirror mylar with foil stamping and featured the game's future superstars. Each Certified Destiny insert featured a Certified Gold Destiny parallel. Neither version was serially numbered.

In 2014, an uncut sheet containing 6 Certified Gold Destiny copies of each player in the set emerged on the secondary market. In 2018, individual singles of the Certified Destiny Gold set emerged on the market through private sales and thus all 10 players in this set have a confirmed copy that exists. However, no copies of the Certified Destiny "base" inserts have surfaced.

1 Jaret Wright

2 Travis Lee

3 Jose Cruz, Jr.

4 Ben Grieve

5 Todd Helton

6 Nomar Garciaparra

7 Paul Konerko

8 Scott Rolen

9 Vladimir Guerrero

10 Andruw Jones

Certified Team & Certified Gold Team

This 20-card set was printed on micro-etched mirror mylar foil and featured the top superstars in the game. Each Certified Destiny insert featured a Certified Gold Destiny parallel. Neither version was serially numbered.

The same uncut sheet referenced above also contained 2 Certified Gold Team copies of each player in the set. In 2018, individual singles of the Certified Team Gold set emerged on the market through private sales and thus all 20 players in this set have a confirmed copy that exists. Similar to the Certified Destiny insert, no copies of the Certified Team "base" inserts have surfaced.

1 Juan Gonzalez

2 Mark McGwire

3 Albert Belle

4 Cal Ripken, Jr.

5 Chuck Knoblauch

6 Jeff Bagwell

7 Roger Clemens

8 Barry Bonds

9 Ken Griffey, Jr.

10 Greg Maddux

11 Derek Jeter

12 Frank Thomas

13 Mo Vaughn

14 Hideo Nomo

15 Mike Piazza

16 Darin Erstad

17 Tony Gwynn

18 Alex Rodriguez

19 Chipper Jones

20 Larry Walker

Epix

Because 1998 Pinnacle Certified was never officially released, each player in the Epix set had a missing version that was supposed to be inserted in Pinnacle Certfied packs. However, the PBF introduced these missing Epix Moment, Season, Play, or Game versions that people believed to have never been produced, printed, or distributed. Please see our separate article on 1998 Pinnacle Epix for a checklist of these cards.